Netflix wants to stop you watching American shows

Looking to get American Netflix shows in the UK? It's about to get a lot harder.

Netflix wants to make its content global. But until that happens, they're going to stop you cheating your way to similar results. David Fullagar, their 'Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture', stated in a blog post on the company's site that they were "making progress in licensing content across the world".

However, while the old laws of licencing by geography are in place, they're going to work hard at blocking any attempt to access international content with proxy addresses, virtual private networks (VPNs) or "unblockers".

New technologies that allow streaming services to detect if a user is masking or 'bouncing' their location are now making it easier for Netflix to uphold their commitments to geographic licencing laws. One nation set to feel the pinch of the new clamp down is Australia - a nation in which Netflix recently launched but with a small offering of 2,092 items (compared to 5,760 in the US and 2,991 in the UK) and has since turned to VPNs to help counter the lack of content.

According to a survey from the Global Web Index, other nations likely to feel the squeeze of Netflix's new clampdown include Indonesia (in which 20 per cent of internet users use VPNs), India, Vietnam and Thailand (in which 17 per cent use VPNs).

"We look forward to offering all of our content everywhere and to consumers being able to enjoy all of Netflix without using a proxy. That’s the goal we will keep pushing towards," writes Fullagar.

Do you use a VPN to access international Netflix content? Would you still subscribe if you could only access local content? Let us know.